Remarkable athlete can be pretty decent if you make use of it and you invest in a little dex. A champion can be leaping around combat, recovering from falls, skipping across narrow ledges. A champion is the one swinging off the chandelier!
It's seriously unremarkable, IMO. It's only half your proficiency bonus rounded up, so it's +1 or +2 for the vast majority of a character's career (until 13th level), and never more than +3. And it only applies if you aren't already proficient. It's got some interesting utility in that it applies to
any check, including ones that can't normally get proficiency, but you're really not going to become an amazing acrobat or athlete--and you lose any benefit for things you're already proficient in! The one swinging off a chandelier should be a Thief, not a Champion.
You can also be a pretty decent sneak and ambusher. With the right tool training you can pick locks (and pockets). You tend to go first in combat.
Edit II: Guess I'm just having Reading Comprehension Failure today; it is listed, it's just orphaned near the top of a column after a sidebar, so I didn't connect it with the Dexterity section. It's not as badly organized as I thought, but it's still a terrible place to put such a critically important part, IMO!
Still, does a +2 to Initiative actually make such a huge and defining difference? And is that *really* a meaningful difference from "I hit, I hit"? You get to decide who to hit sooner, sure, but you're still hitting and nothing else in combat...
I also like the second fighting style. Want to be aggressive and defensive at the same time? Want to mix it up with dual scimitars and bow? (cringe). Sword and board duelling and protection?
I don't think the champion needs to be just hit, hit, hit. More hit, jump, balance, hit, shoot, hit etc
"Shoot" is just a synonym for "hit," so I don't see that as different. And jump/balance is something much, much, MUCH better left to the Thief. Yes, the Champion has a narrow edge over other Fighters, but if that edge is easily overcome by most other classes, then the Champion isn't really particularly good...and the other Fighters are that much worse for not having that benefit!
More like: "I use all my cool maneuvers in 1 round doing a super nova then whine at the party to take a short rest for the rest of the session."
And people thought it was a good idea to add the 15-minute workday problem to Fighters...why, exactly? Like, I get that you're essentially mocking the very concept of someone who gets frustrated by having dramatically fewer resources than opportunities to use them. But the frustration is real and the 15-minute workday seems to be well-recognized as a
failure condition that results from a large disparity between quantity of resources and number of opportunities to spend them. Making it out to be the resource-spender being a whiny douche who ruins everyone else's fun is just a different way of saying the people you disagree with engage in bagwrongfun, or at least badwrong preferences.
I'm not really a fan of Battlemaster. Superiority dice are a fine mechanic, but missing on encounter powers is something I don't miss from 4e. For some reason, it just doesn't feel worthwhile. My summary is, "Trades simplicity for very limited utility."
Generally agreed, though as I recently learned, you can't actually miss with most Battlemaster maneuvers. They're either "when you hit" or (effectively) "you can spend your Attack action to do something else" e.g. let an ally attack instead.
I like the Champion, if only because it really evokes red box Basic D&D (BEMCI) for me. People tend to underestimate Remarkable Athlete, but the fact that Initiative is a Dex check makes it at least useful every combat, and otherwise it's good for stealth. Beyond that, crits are fun and can't be beat for raw damage. I feel like I need to rely on my wits and my strength alone as a Champion. I've got no tricks beyond the stuff I find. There are no abilities to define your character, too, which is pretty liberating. My summary is, "Old reliable," or "Good ol' rock. Nothing beats rock."
"Crits are fun" is...massively subjective. It can be fun to do a bunch of damage, sure. But they can also be incredibly frustrating (e.g. "god dammit, ANOTHER wasted crit on an enemy that was already almost dead..." which happens to me ALL THE TIME in Fire Emblem: Awakening), or they can just not happen as often as expected and therefore contribute little or nothing at all.
I can agree that the Champion is the "no tricks, no fluff" character. I just wish it didn't have to also be bland and nearly unable to contribute to anything out of combat (and especially anything social, which at least the BM has a TINY sliver of utility for).
I like the EK, too, but that's probably because I like spellcasters. I think all my off-school spells will always go to Transmutation, but even so a little magic goes a long way. EK will probably be my go-to Fighter subclass. My summary is, "Martial-focused gish."
Yeah, the EK is "FIGHTER (oh and also mage)." One of the few things I can really respect about 5e is that they gave an actual *range* along the "weapon/magic" divide: EK sits at the Fightery end, Dragon Sorc sits at the Wizardy end, and things like the Valor Bard and Blade Warlock sit in the middle, possibly the Paladin as well if you're comfortable refluffing it as more magical than divine.
